Prepare to Counter the Large-Scale Offensive by Chiang’s Troops Against Jiaodong and Central Jiangsu[1]

(June 19, 1946)

Chen, Shu, and inform Liu, Deng, Bo[2]:

(1) Zhou[3] in Nanjing cables that Chiang[4] has decided to fight on a large scale. Besides besieging the Fifth Division, he will definitely launch attacks on the Jiaodong and Central Jiangsu areas. It is hoped that preparations will be made in light of this situation. (2) Unify the command over the Jiaodong and Binhai areas, concentrate forces along the Jimo–Jiaozhou–Gaomi line, and annihilate the enemy when they attack. Here, preparations must be made to deal with three American-equipped armies. If two or three of their divisions can be annihilated, the enemy’s offensive edge can be blunted and their westward advance checked. (3) Prepare to capture Jinan. (4) Prepare to smash the enemy advancing northward from Xuzhou. (5) Under the conditions that Chiang has decided to fight on a large scale, whether our Bohai forces can spare ten thousand men to coordinate with the Hebei-Shandong-Henan forces in seizing Liaocheng and Boping[5] is to be decided through consultation between Chen and Shu on one side and Liu, Deng, and Bo on the other. (6) Wu Huawen[6] is wavering; promptly win him over to come over to our side. (7) Sun Liangcheng[7] is also wavering; it is hoped that the Central China authorities will be instructed to win over Sun’s troops to come over to our side. (8) Central China must prepare to resolutely smash Chiang’s troops when they launch a large-scale offensive against Central Jiangsu. (9) In order to delay the timing of the large-scale offensive by Chiang’s troops, we should not take offensive actions at present.

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[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to Chen Yi, Commander of the New Fourth Army and concurrently Commander of the Shandong Military Region, and Shu Tong, Director of its Political Department.

[2] Liu, Deng, and Bo refer to Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and Bo Yibo, who were then respectively Commander, Political Commissar, and First Deputy Political Commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region.

[3] Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai.

[4] Chiang refers to Chiang Kai-shek.

[5] Liao refers to Liaocheng in Shandong. Bo refers to Boping, a former county merged into Chiping County, Shandong, in 1956.

[6] Wu Huawen was then Commander of the Provisional 7th Column of the Kuomintang Army.

[7] Sun Liangcheng was then Commander of the Provisional 5th Column of the Kuomintang Army.